


The gardener

by Vinushuka



Series: Life inside and outside Dir en grey [5]
Category: Dir en grey, Sukekiyo (Band)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 04:39:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7028971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vinushuka/pseuds/Vinushuka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toshiya's first morning after breaking up with Kyo gets an interesting start when he meets his gardener for the first time in proper. Mari turns out to be an intriguing person with an unusual background. She helps Toshiya to forget his sorrow for a while and makes him think about new possibilities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The gardener

When Toshiya woke up next morning he finally felt rested. Even though he had stayed up late last night and cried again before falling asleep he had slept like a log after that. It wasn’t actually morning any more, the clock was approaching eleven o’clock. But so what, he had a whole day to do what he wanted, no meetings, rehearsals or PR-events. Although breaking up with Kyo had been the right thing to do that didn’t prevent him from worrying about him. Toshiya knew that the meeting with Sukekiyo would force Kyo to act normally, but this days wasn’t going to be easy for him or for Toshiya for that matter.

      Toshiya jumped up from his bed and stretched his limbs that felt stiff after a long sleep. He opened his wardrobe to find something to put on. A sleeveless T-shirt and ragged shorts would have to do on a hot day like this. Then he headed downstairs to brew a cup of coffee. While the coffee machine was doing its thing Toshiya headed to the living room to check his phone. Again, no messages from Kyo. Suddenly the reality hit him hard. There wouldn’t be any messages from Kyo anymore. Toshiya had got so used to talking with Kyo all the time that this silence was like a slap in the face. Kyo wouldn’t be there anymore for him. Toshiya tried to read his other messages but he couldn’t because tears kept messing up his eyesight. He closed the phone feeling frustrated and walked to the kitchen to get his daily dose of caffeine.

     When he returned to the living room he thought he saw something or someone move in the garden. He took his coffee mug with him and sneaked down the garden path to check what was going on. True enough, there was someone there concentrating in trimming the edges of his lawn. “Good morning Mrs. Ogawa”, Toshiya called already from a distance not to scare the woman with his sudden appearance.

The woman straightened her back and turned to watch Toshiya’s approach. “Ah, Mr. Hara, good morning! Sorry to disturb you like this. I thought you were out on business as usual.”

“You’re not disturbing me. Actually it’s nice to have company on my day off. How are you doing? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other”, Toshiya continued gazing curiously at the tall woman in front of him. There was something very non-Japanese in her, the way she looked, talked and acted. “Would you like to have a cup of coffee with me?” Toshiya asked pointing at the mug he had in his hand.

“That would be very nice”, the woman replied and stripped off her garden gloves to take a break. “And please, call me Mari. I’m not actually Mrs. any more.”

“Okay, Mari it is then. You can call me Toshiya. I’ll be back with the coffee in a second. Please, take a seat”, Toshiya told her and hurried back to his kitchen to fetch a mug of coffee for his guest.

They sat side by side on a garden bench under the canopy of a Japanese maple sipping their coffee.

“You’ve maintained the garden very well. I love every inch of it”, Toshiya said gazing at the lush greenery around them.

“I’m glad you like it. I designed this garden for the owner of this house already five years ago. My own garden looks pretty much the same.”

“Ah, so you are a garden designer as well?”

“Yeah, I came to Japan to study garden design as a young girl. Then I met my husband and stayed here permanently”, Mari replied looking thoughtful.

“So you’re not Japanese originally?” Toshiya asked satisfied that his first impression had turned out to be correct.

“No, I’m half Japanese half Finnish”, she explained. “You know the classic story. My father traveled to Finland as a young man to work as a cook in a hotel and met this Finnish girl. They fell in love, got married and I was born. Unfortunately their marriage didn’t last. My father moved back to Tokyo and my mother stayed in Finland. I grew up with my mother but spent some time also with my father here in Japan.”

      Just when Mari had finished her story her phone rang. She checked the phone and apologized: “Sorry, I will have to take this call. It’s my mother.” She stood up and walked a few steps away to take her call. Toshiya listened intrigued by the strange language she was speaking. In some respects it sounded like Japanese but mostly not.  The woman looked very lively and delighted to talk to her mother. She too was dressed in shorts and sleeveless T-shirt. She had tied her long black hair into a pony tail that was protruding through the opening in her cap. She seemed to have a habit of winding a strand of her hair around her finger while talking. She had multiple piercings on her right earlobe and narrow band of tattoos around her left arm, not very typical for a Japanese woman.

“My mother is planning to come here for a garden tour this autumn. She’s a real garden freak like me. I promised to act as her guide and we are now planning the details of her journey”, Mari explained and sat beside Toshiya to finish up her coffee that was probably already cold. “By the way, I must warn you. She’s a fanatic Dir en grey fan, worse than me”, she added and gazed Toshiya with her strange eyes that were blue but full of brown spots.

“Really?” Toshiya smiled looking a bit surprised. “We’ve been couple of times in Finland during our European tours. It’s nice to be recognized also outside Japan.”

“Now that you are here, would you do me a favor?” Mari suddenly changed the subject.  “I had to take down one of my garden gates for repair and now I should erect it again. That requires at least four hands and I’ve got only two. Could you help me with that?” she asked shyly as if she was afraid that Toshiya would turn her down.

“Sure, I can help. It’s nice to do something physical for a change”, Toshiya agreed rubbing his right bicep with his large hand. He had been exercising regularly at his friend’s gym for a year now and that was starting to show. Now he was hoping to buy some equipment at home. There was some extra room in his basement where he could set up his own gym.  Seeing Kyo’s facilities had convinced him that own gym was handy. He could exercise whenever it suited him.

      Toshiya followed Mari to the back of the garden where there was a small bamboo gate leading to her side. Lifting a wooden garden gate into an upright position was an easy task for Toshiya. He held the gate up while Mari propped it in place with temporary supports. The gate was now ready to be cast into concrete. “Thank you very much for your help! I can take care of the rest now. My girlfriend was supposed to come and help me but she had some problem at her company”, Mari explained using the word girlfriend as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

      Toshiya took notice of the wording with relief. This woman wasn’t definitely after a new husband. Come to think of it, Toshiya wasn’t after a wife either although he would have liked to have a family of his own. He liked kids and probably he would make a good father too. But it was complicated under these circumstances. Maybe he should talk about this with Die.

      Toshiya returned to his house satisfied with his accomplishments this morning and dug up the phone from his pocket. It would be a good time to tell Die his news.


End file.
